Sunday, June 18, 2017

787 Month End Report for May 2017 and June 2017 Mid Month Report


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Number
Testing Complete3
To be assembled in Everett174
To be assembled in Charleston134
Parts Arriving6
Undergoing final assembly8
Storage0
Storage/Change Incorporation and Re-Work0
Change Incorporation and Re-Work1
Pre-Flight Prep10
Production Testing4
Non Customer Flight Tests3
Ready for Delivery3
Donation3
Delivered553
TOTAL902

Sorry for the delay in posting the May report but since we're at the middle of June I'm combining the posts into one for this month.

Boeing had a decent May performance with the delivery of 12 787s including one early build 787-8. Boeing delivered 9 787-9s and 3 787-8s and had bought the total deliveries as of the end of May to 553.  Year to date deliveries to the end of May stands at 53.  Through the first half of June Boeing delivered an additional 6 787s (1 787-8 and 5 787-9s).  Looking ahead to deliveries Boeing should deliver 11 787s this month (3 x 787-8 and 8 x 787-9s).  This total will include the last early build 787-8 for Ethiopian Airlines as well as a 787-9 that is being bought by the Saudi Ministry of Finance for use by Saudi Arabian Airlines.  This aircraft's delivery has been inexplicably delayed and another 787-9 has been delivered but has not flown to Saudi Arabia and indeed continues to sit at Charleston waiting to undertake its delivery flight.  The strange thing about this whole saga is that Saudi Arabian and the Saudi Ministry of Finance continued to take delivery of 777s.  And Saudi Arabian Airlines took delivery of direct purchased 787-9s.

All told Boeing would have delivered 64 787s through the first half of 2017 (16 x 787-8 and 48 x 787-9s).  This puts them under the current production pace of 12 per month.  This is undoubtedly due to the introduction of the 787-10 flight test aircraft production into the final assembly process thus reducing the number of 787s that Charleston can produce despite shifting some assembly of production standard 787s to Everett.  This total also includes 2 early build deliveries so the actual delivery total of current production aircraft is 62, about 10 lower than what it should be.  For the 2nd quarter Boeing will probably deliver 32 787s (6 x 787-8s and 26 x 787-9s).  Of course I'll have the final numbers during the first week of July but it appears that this is what the final tally will be.

In terms of production, Boeing appears to have restored 787 production to what is was prior to the start of 787-10 assembly.  I anticipate that Boeing should start final assembly on 12 787s while rolling out 12 aircraft in June.  The split should also be returned to what it was - 7 built at Everett and 5 in Charleston.  So far in June Everett has started final assembly on 4 airplanes and rolled out 3 while Charleston started work on 3 and rolled out a further 3.

On 787-10 testing, Boeing has added the final 2 787-10 flight test airplanes to the testing program.  ZC036 (LN548, N548ZC) flew on May 2, 2017 and has been flying regular test flight since June 1st.  ZC002 flew on June 8th and has been conducting multiple short duration flights out of Charleston and has not yet left for Boeing Field where Boeing's flight test team is headquartered.  Thus far the 787-10 flight test program has accumulated over 268 flight test hours spread across 108 flights.  Currently ZC001 (LN528, N528ZC) is on static display at the Paris Air Show (unfortunately not flying a 787 display like last year at Farnborough) and should be there until at least Thursday.  The fact that Boeing sent the 787-10 to Le Bourget instead of flying test flights means that the flight test program looks to be on schedule though I'm hoping that Boeing will give more clarity on 787-10 testing progress during the next couple of days or in late July when they have the 2nd quarter conference call.

One programming note, I will be putting up a daily posting of the commercial aircraft orders at the Paris Air Show as well as commentary during the week.  It does appear that this will not be a big week for the 787 (or widebody aircraft in general) but it looks like Boeing will announce the launch of the 737-10 Max tomorrow.  This will probably be the highlight of the show though we'll see if there are any surprises this year.  Look out for my daily posting starting tomorrow.  As always you can check out the 787 spreadsheets (link below) to see the latest on the 787 deliveries, firing order, production and 787-10 testing.

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